Homemade sauerkraut with cumin in a glass jar, closeup, square

Top 5 Reasons Sauerkraut Outperforms Probiotic Supplements

If you’re taking probiotic supplements, you already know these friendly bacteria are essential in establishing and maintaining optimal health.

What you may not know is that sauerkraut delivers even more benefit above and beyond the helpful probiotic bacteria.

Why Sauerkraut Kicks Probiotics to the Curb.

It offers more beneficial bacteria. A single serving of sauerkraut can provide as much as 10 times the probiotics as one bottle of probiotic supplements. It also provides a wider variety of bacteria than you would find in a probiotic supplement.

Sauerkraut does more to optimize the gut than probiotics. The acidic properties of sauerkraut create an environment in the gut that allows the beneficial flora to bloom and also helps to restore the pH levels of the gut, which soothes it and helps it to repair itself.

Sauerkraut will save you more money. A jar of raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut costs significantly less than probiotic supplements. See this article for a cost comparison.
Probiotics don’t offer the vitamin and enzymatic benefits that sauerkraut offers. Sauerkraut aids in optimal digestion due to its high enzymatic properties and high fibre content. It is also an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. It contains iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese and vitamins C, D, K, A, B6 and B12. Due to the fermentation process, they are more bioavailable. It’s like eating a multivitamin in every bite.

Sauerkraut kicks more butt than probiotics. Sauerkraut has anti fungal and anti microbial properties that protect the body from invaders. In lab tests sauerkraut juice was proven a more effective antifungal than a commercially available pharmaceutical antibiotic. It was also proven in the 2012 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, scientists found that the probiotics like those found in sauerkraut raised levels of the immune system antibody IgG3 by as much as 66 percent!

If getting maximum nutrition and saving money are of interest to you then sauerkraut is definitely the big winner.

Sources:

Gut microbiota: the link to your second brain. Cell. 2015 Apr 9;161(2):193-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.033. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25860600

Survival of Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 during sauerkraut fermentation. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16013372# http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16013372

Dietary deprivation of fermented foods causes a fall in innate immune response. Lactic acid bacteria can counteract the immunological effect of this deprivation. J Dairy Res. 2006 Nov;73(4):492-8. Epub 2006 Sep 21. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16987435

Fermented foods, microbiota, and mental health: ancient practice meets nutritional psychiatry, Published online 2014 Jan 15. doi: 10.1186/1880-6805-33-2, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3904694/

Pundir Ram Kumar, et al., “Fermented Sauerkraut Juice as Antimicrobial Agent: An In Vitro Study,” International Research Journal of Pharmacy, 2013, 4(12): 46-49 http://www.irjponline.com/admin/php/uploads/2079_pdf.pdf

Evaluation of the immune benefits of two probiotic strains Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis, BB-12® and Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei, L. casei 431® in an influenza vaccination model: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study British Journal of Nutrition, March 2012; 107(6):876-884, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=8491679&fileId=S000711451100420X

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